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Lubbock, Sir John, 1834-1913

"The Pleasures of Life"

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But we like to think of Love rather as the Angel of Happiness than as a
ruling force: of the joy of home when "hearts are of each other sure."
"It is the secret sympathy,
The silver link, the silken tie,
Which heart to heart, and mind to mind
In body and in soul can bind." [12]
What Bacon says of a friend is even truer of a wife; there is "no man that
imparteth his joys to his friend, but he joyeth the more; and no man that
imparteth his griefs to his friend, but he grieveth the less."
Let some one we love come near us and
"At once it seems that something new or strange
Has passed upon the flowers, the trees, the ground;
Some slight but unintelligible change
On everything around." [13]
We might, I think, apply to love what Homer says of Fate:
"Her feet are tender, for she sets her steps
Not on the ground, but on the heads of men."
Love and Reason divide the life of man. We must give to each its due. If
it is impossible to attain to virtue by the aid of Reason without Love,
neither can we do so by means of Love alone without Reason.


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